The Snow Falls White
by The Winter Dragon
Summary: This story takes place three generations from Hazel and his crew. A mutt doe gives birth to three kittens, who struggle to find a place in the warren. They must deal with elil, traitors, and deaths among them. Rated PG for very mild violence.
1. Ivy, Blackbur, and Fuya

  
  
**Ch.1  
"Ivy, Blackbur, and Fuya"  
**  
Night draped itself over the vast down like a shawl, embracing the trees and grass, making the shadows in the rabbit holes on the beech hanger dance as long legged, long-eared creatures flitted in and out of them. Down below, new life was stirring in the belly of a dappled chestnut doe. Gentle souls were whispering the stale burrow air, marking the arrival of their bodies. The doe grunted, and a kit slid onto the grass and fur strewn floor. Panting slightly, she strained again after severing the thing cord connecting the young female kit from her mother. A second kit slipped out of the warm, safe womb and out into the cold, elil strewn world. Twice more the mother strained herself and twice more rabbit kittens found their way into the world. So quiet was this compared to that of other birth makings, the mother panting softly and the kits squeaking gently for life-giving milk. Up above the new moon was rising, and a mist settled over the ground as a messenger sent to check on the doe spread the word. Even the wind twirling about his ears seemed to listen with bated breath and he whispered, "Earth's had her kits. Four kits, newborn, in Earth's burrow. New life has come again..."  
  
The kestrel peered down on the land with his sharp eyes. Normally he avoided this place, this place where the gull used to live. But he was only flying here because of the gathering of rabbits. So many of them were clustered in one spot, he was rather bemused. As he veered southward over the dawn's light splashed trees, he wondered why it was.  
  
Down below none were in question as to why they were gathered. Earth, a well liked doe in the warren, had brought up her kittens. Three had survived to this stage in life, two does and a buck. The oldest doe was a splashed chestnut color, like her mother. She was in two minds about the crowd. She would stretch her velvety pink nose out just so far, but would then retract it back instantly, sheltering behind her mothers powerful hind legs.. The second kitten, also a doe, was the color of the new moon, of snowdrifts and the sticks the men burn in their mouths. She had not another color hair on her. Many of the rabbits were staring and whispering behind theirs paws. They pulled back when she hopped towards them. Her eyes were like that of the legendary Seer Fiver, huge and liquid but cold and deep. They seemed to pull the rabbits in, and their fear rose in a cloud about them. The last kitten, a sleek black buck, was just sitting there serenely, not moving a muscle. The reason Earths kittens were so in demand was because her bloodlines were crisscrossed so many times. Legends such as Bigwig and Blackavar were in her blood, Clover was in there somewhere, and the great-grandson of Captain Campion was the proud buck that sired the kittens.  
"Shift aside there, that's a chap..." All the rabbits on the crowded down instantly sat up on their haunches, respecting the chief rabbit, Blowhard. The seasoned old buck gazed at the kittens. The scars on his nose stretched slightly as his he sniffed the kittens, which were now alone. It was customary for even the mother to step back while the chief inspected her children. "Earth," he growled in his deep tones "come forward and tell me the names of these kittens."  
"Well, sir," Earth began in her delicate but strong voice, "the chestnut doe is Ivy. See how her eyes are emerald green?" The crowd in general nodded and glanced as one to the doe's bright, pretty green eyes. Earth cleared her throat and began again. She gestured towards the buck. "This, sir, is Blackbur. I thought the name went well with his fur. And the last kitten..." Her eyes strayed to the white kitten, who was now gazing curiously back at her. "The last doe's name is Fuya-thlay." (Fuya-thlay means Snow-fur, or fur the color of snow. Fuya obviously means snow.) A murmur of assent shifted and eased between the still bodies of the rabbits. The kittens now had names, words that would now flash a bright picture of the kitten when said. The rabbits slowly dispersed, moving off to silflay, doze in their burrows, or simply bask in the sunlight now creeping along the down. As he and the Captain of Owsla descended into the honeycomb, the Blowhard distinctly said, "Keep an eye on Fuya-thlay, Cleave, keep an eye on her."  
"Yes, sir." The Captain answered, dipping his pointed head and slipping into his own roomy burrow. The tiny white kitten and her mother, however, were unaware of this. All, however, were unaware that the webs of fate and destiny of them all were spinning themselves around the body of this snow- white doe. And perhaps sooner, perhaps later, but the doe and her closest allies would learn that one wrong move made by them would snap the frail threads that kept life itself flowing so freely over the downs. 


	2. The Warren's Traitors

  
  
"Come on Snow, race me to the hole!"  
"You're on, Blackie!"  
The two kittens raced side by side, kicking out with their powerful back legs, using their new-found muscles. As the two young ones dashed towards the hole, ears slicked back to prevent air resistance, both of them suddenly jerked their bodies into the air, twisting around and scoring the soft ground with their claws as they landed. Their long legs soon became entangled in their need to escape what was in front of them. A stocky form had risen from the hole they were racing towards, and cuffed both of them sharply across the face. They both fell on their thin backs and gazed sorrowfully up at the figure in front of them, Blackbur's legs still twitching feebly.  
  
"Hullo, Mum."  
"Yo, 'sup Mom?"  
Earth's face was contorted with rage, and a silent growl was on her handsome features. "Fuya-thlay! Blackbur! IN THE BURROW AT ONCE!" She snarled. Ivy sneered at them with contempt from about her mother's ankles as the two kittens dragged their feet down the rabbit hole and along the passages, their dam breathing down on their necks.  
"Nice going." Snow whispered in Blackbur's ear, a smile playing on her face.  
"It was so worth it." He said, grinning back.  
The two young rabbits slipped into their mothers burrow, the full grown doe behind them. "Ivy," Earth growled, "go visit Cleave. I need to talk to these two." Ivy gazed up at her mother reproachfully; Ivy loved to hear her siblings being yelled at, which happened quite a lot. Nevertheless, she slunk from the burrow.  
"Now, as for you two." Earth said. Her face was no longer contorted, but had calmness in it that reminded Snow forcibly of the eye of a hurricane. "Now, I seem to recall telling you two something before I left the burrow this morning. Do you remember what it was?" Earths two youngest kittens mumbled something, their ears drooping dejectedly. "Sorry, what was that?" Earth asked dangerously.  
"You said that a homba and his mate were hunting on the downs." Snow said, her huge brown eyes fixed on her feet.  
"You said that by no means whatsoever were we to go above ground." Blackbur finished, his head hanging. Earth gazed at her kids, disappointment stirring in her eyes.  
"Guys, I love you. You know I do. That's the whole reason I set these boundaries- so you won't get killed. You two, Ivy, and my mate are my whole world. I don't know what I would do if anything ever happened to any of you. Don't you understand?" Earth looked at both of her misbehaving kittens in turn, and they looked up to meet her eyes. Beneath her anger, a mothering instinct, a kindness stirred. "If you two want to go above ground again, then I'll go with you before it gets too dark." Her kittens ears perked up slightly and they smiled weakly as they filed out of the burrow behind their mother.  
  
Two deep green eyes danced dully like emeralds in the dark. The whites were rolling about them, and a thin dark trickle of blood was trickling down her snout from her nose. Creamy froth was bubbling at the corners of her mouth. She had many deep scores on her side that were oozing thick blood. Ivy was deep in the warren passages, in an unused burrow. She was lying on her side and panting heavily, her head aching with what she had just gone through. Painful as it was, she had to relieve it once more, had to try once more to figure it out.  
  
She had been trotting lazily to Cleave's burrow, but something about the voices floating out of it made her stop at the entrance and shrink into the shadows. Her pink nose had told her that Cleave and the chief rabbit were conversing in there. Her ears came up when she heard her sister's name.  
"That Fuya-thlay, now what do you think of her? Will she interfere with our plan? I've been getting rather bad vibes about her." The sleek voice of Cleave had said.  
"I don't know, but something is telling me she will. We can't have that." The chief answered back hoarsely.  
"What do you propose we do? Drive her out?"  
"No, we must slaughter her. Her and her brother. We need to make it look like and accident, thou-" Blowhard had raised his head, his pale eyes wide. He had just smelt Ivy.  
"Shall I kill her, too, sir? She might warn Earth." Cleave said at once. Ivy did not wait to hear the answer. She had already darted back down the passageway. It is rare, if ever, for a rabbit to bolt and keep up that speed underground, but Ivy was did it then. Her legs were a blur as she ran farther and farther in the warren, turning sharply, banging her hips on the unused corners. Her legs had started to feel like lead, and she had no choice but to turn and fight the pursuer she knew was there. As she spun around, she felt two powerful, muscled back legs tearing into the skin on her side. As she choked and spluttered, she felt front claws cuffing her nose sharply. Her shining eyes had slipped closed as she collapsed onto the hard, cold floor of the burrow. When she had opened them again, the light in them was dull, and no one else was in the burrow.  
  
She mulled things over for a bit, then tried to rise, but failed. The pain in her side was receding slowly. Actually, she was finding all of the pain disappearing. She was also finding it hard to draw breath, and she was tired, very tired. She longed to close her eyes and sleep the day away, sleep the months away, to sleep and not awaken. No creature was around to watch the light leave eyes that could no longer see, watch drooping whiskers that would never feel wind sift through them again. Soft paws that would never have earth crumble under them again. As the warmth left the does body, a black shadow, black as death with shining red eyes came to collect the one fallen so young. The small does body, however, would rot in the burrow so isolated that the stench of death didn't even start to permeate the upper burrows, and a loved and cherished soul's light flickered and died, alone and cold. 


End file.
